Journal Student_Tech's Journal: I should be sleeping 1
Well, it's about 2:15AM local time. Decided I should put down some update things...
I got a NEC MultiSync 4PG monitor @ the surplus sale last Tburs. They still have many of these hanging in classrooms on campus(they all seem to be smaller classes, with the larger ones getting projectors). It is 27", has S-Video, and Composite in(utilizing an BNC connector) as well as RGB(via HD15 and BNC plugs). Supports NTSC, NTSC-4.43(instead of 3.58Mhz for color, it is at 4.43 Mhz (same freq as PAL, but still an NTSC color signal), and PAL(only PAL50, no PAL60, and NTSC-4.43 is wrong colors but is viewable when PAL60 is outputed) via a switch on the back. Supposedly it can do 15-50Khz, and I can confirm that the high end seems to be working fine, don't know how well it will take to a 15.75Khz (TV horizontal sync also 480i) on the RGB, but I hope so. First monitor I have gotten with a bulit in fan too. Using my computer as a test source, it seemed to do 480p and 720p (or as close as I can emulate them) via the RGB (HD15, not the BNC (no cable to test the BNC, but my friend was running a laptop @ 1024x768 via BNC fine the night before)) connector just fine. 1080i and 480i seemed kinda funny, but my drivers and card may have been not putting out a real interlaced signal. (No, it wasn't broken either so I am pretty sure it can handle it). (If I get bored, I need to try and Tri-Head my computer, 1024x768 (Max on my 15" and what seems to be max for the 4PG) on each monitor, 15", 20", and 27" just to see what it looks like.)
Ordered one of the KeyDigital transcoders that takes component in and provides an RGB signal out, gonna see how the PS2/Xbox/Gamecube look on the monitor using their component outs and see how well HDTV looks with them. I know that some of those systems do offer RGB out, but if I wanna run HDTV and it looks like I'm gonna have to use the component. PS2 also drops to component when running DVD, even when set to do RGB. It also seems to be the simple easy way (RGB for Gamecube I understand you need to take the sync from the composite on the other (analog) output, don't wanna have to build that many circuts). Maybe if I get bored (again) I will work(take apart) on my VGA box for my dreamcast and set it up to let me select RGB @ 15.75 Khz, or RGB @ 31.5Khz (VGA), and see how well that works. (The DC doesn't offer component out, but does offer RGB,
My friend and I also got another Alphaserver 2100, this time it had 2 275Mhz Alpha procs, as well as 512MB of ram, and a 4GB SCSI drive.(last AS 2100 we got was just the case, MB, and PS, no HD, no CDROM, no I/O board, no Proc, no memory, nothing. Got it for $5 and spent $75 getting it running(memory board, proc, and I/O bored. HD were another lot @ the auction but they only cost $10 and had a CD-ROM as well). Gonna combine that procs and memory with the contents of our other AS 2100 and go 3-proc, 640MB of ram. Also got some HP 9000 J210 boxes. They use the PA-RISC chip so they should be another fun box to play with. He also picked up one of the 4PGs, mostly because we got an arcade cabinet whose controller board for the tube died, and if we put the 4PG in we can now run most any raster arcade games ever released(most, not all as there are some really oddball ones out there). We might even try the "NBA on NBC Showtime"/"NFL Blitz" game we got @ medium res (25Khz IIRC). If we get a system that wants VGA we can even do that now.
Well I spent 30 minutes on this, time for bed now.
Updated 11:45AM localtime, same day took my composite output from my gamesystem (in this case an xbox), ran that into the Green BNC plug on the RGB adapter because the monitor supported Sync-On-Green. Got a stable, green tinted picture.(why green? Because nothing else was plugged in). So I can now confirm that it will handle 15.75Khz in via the RGB (at least the BNC, not sure about the HD15 plug).
Update, Feb 08 got the transcoder that shifts the color space from YPbPr(aka component) -> RGB. The image is shifted horizontally but if I play with which sync it is using (green or just feeding a seperate veritcal) I can get it to look decent at 480i,480p,720p,1080i.(Can't find the horizontal or vertical adjusts on this NEC, either they are internal to the unit or you have to use the remote to set them). At the moment I have borrowed a Xbox HD AV Pack from a friend and have been running the Xbox @ Progressive, also won a DVD player that does progressive out and they both work fine. Now I just need component cables for PS2 and GameCube and I'll be set.(And more games that do progressive out of course).
Hardware (Score:1)